PERC 2012 Abstract Detail Page

"Calibration" is an aspect of Metacognition that describes how well students assess their own knowledge. One tool that can help to assess student calibration is the Knowledge Survey (KS). On a KS, students rate their confidence in their ability to answer questions related to course content. A comparison of a student's confidence level with their actual performance on course exams gives an indication of the student's metacognitive calibration. We report on a study that explores students' responses to a KS in introductory physics and chemistry courses serving both STEM and non-STEM populations. In many courses, Delta (the difference between KS-score and Final Exam score, a measure of calibration) was anti-correlated with Final Exam performance. No relationship was found between Delta and students' scientific reasoning abilities. We also report preliminary findings on how calibration differs for questions of a quantitative nature vs. those of a more conceptual nature.